>>36
Python seems very elegant compared to a lot of programming languages.
It's perfectly clear if you've ever written C. It will look familiar if you've ever written BASIC. If you're not an idiot you'll be able to jump right in from Java (But then again, if you're not an idiot, why on earth were you using Java in the first place?) It might even be sort of grokkable if all you've ever written is Lisp.
The only somewhat common language I'd honestly believe you'd have a problem coming in from would be C++. But then again, C++ programmers have irregular and arcane syntax permanently fused together with basic programming concepts in their brains, and will never amount to much anyway.
Now Ruby, there's a beast from another world. I don't object to any specific feature, but when it all comes together it seems so horribly unstructured to me. Some kind of Perl-Smalltalk mish-mash. What are you going to do with such a silly-putty language, throw clumps of it at the problem until something sticks?